We're Not Monessen Around - Hear Me in the lives of teens

Jeff Baron and I just finished setting up the microphones in Monessen when students began trickling in.   Up came a blonde girl named Alisha with bright, though slightly downcast, blue eyes.  I asked, "Are you ready to share your story about bullying?" She answered, somewhat hurriedly, "No, I am going to share about the shelter!" - then launched into an accounting of her life with older brother as abandoned (then reclaimed) siblings. Texas, Belle Vernon, Monessen, mother, father, shelter, grandmother.  What amazed me during this journey of a story was that she did not tear up or feel sorry for herself, and neither did we - we sat still, enrapt, moved along by this teen's clarity and vulnerability.  Her teacher, Mary Dodaro, said Alisha wanted to be on the Hear Me youth leadership team.  And, she is.

Next, an eighth-grade student named Brian.  Toni, the guidance counselor at Greensburg-Salem, set up Hear Me as an opportunity to hear directly about how youth really feel about moving on to high school.  Brian was absolutely clear that he would fail Spanish, lose all of his friends, and ninth grade surely would end up a debacle - no confidence.  The school principal listened to Brian's story, said, "This cannot be," and found him in his classroom.  The Principal personally drove him to the high school to show him every inch of the building, showing Brian the reality that he can and will succeed.

Finally, last night on the way to teach, I got a text: "I gotta talk to you about college. ms. jen I want to go to college.  I kno I got what it takes bt my grades aren't the greatest! so what should I do?"  Hey, Michael, meet me on Monday after school and let's start - "let's start to start," as my mother used to say to me.

What does it mean to create opportunity?  I used to think that opportunity was linked to chance - being in the right place at the right time, or "options," but the more I work on this project, it is the simple acts of listening and responding that open up a world of possibility.  Not just for the youth, but for us busy, jaded grown ups - how we can see a situation anew because a child shared their story.  That's the opportunity of this project - hear me!

- "No matter what accomplishments you make, somebody helped you." Althea Gibson